burnt out

I don't know what to post about....other than that I've been spending too freely on makeup as can be seen from all those 'haul' posts :S

On Sunday, I added a 'day counter' to my igoogle homepage, to keep track of how long I could last without buying any sort of makeup. Today, I was up to 3 days since my last makeup purchase...until after work, when I stopped by Shoppers Drug Mart while my bf was at the doctors. Somehow I ended up purchasing Burt's Bee's lipbalm, and one of those Maybelline Cool Effect liners, in Snow Bunny because they were on sale! So....my day counter is now back to ZERO :(

I also got tons of Easter chocolate since they were half priced :D - a lot of Cadbury mini eggs, and some Ferrero Rocher for the bf. I prefer Lindt myself but the Easter Lindt products seemed pretty boring and not worth my money.

Note that I'm so cheap, I didn't bother getting any Easter chocolate because I knew they would be half off this week lol :P At least that makes up for my makeup purchases right? ;)

I've decided take some measures to cut down my spending though. My goal is to not buy any makeup for the next two months starting this week.

That means no purchases from drugstores, Sephora, or online websites. Also no purchases from MAC. Although I might have to make an exception for the Heatherette nail polish if I do get it...If it wasn't LE I would've been able to put it off for sure :( Stupid LE...

I find my problem is that I get a rush from buying stuff for myself - whether its makeup, skincare, clothing, shoes, purses, whatever....it usually ends up being makeup because makeup is easy to select and easy to find. I can easily find swatches and reviews of whatever I like.

With clothing, shoes, purses, I'm very picky. I have to see it in person and try it on, so no online impulse buys for me. At the same time, the clothing stores in Toronto are very repetitive and boring. There aren't any stores I like anymore. Some think of clothing as a better investment, but I personally don't agree except for classic items like work clothing (pantsuits, shirts, etc). Otherwise, things go out of fashion quite fast. Also, no one would wear the same sweater everyday or even twice a week, while you could sport the same e/s colours everyday and no one would notice.

Clothing is often more pricey anyway, lets not even get on the subject of shoes and purses....so makeup is a cheaper high for me :P But I do know its getting a bit out of hand, hence my goal to stay off it for 2 months at least to see how it goes.

Also planning to sell/give away some of the stuff I never use...I took out a bunch of stuff already from my traincase but there isn't much hi-end stuff - I just can't part with those yet :(

rant

i wish my bf would take pictures with me.


there i said it :(


he doesn't like taking pictures, but still he would do it with friends if he was on a vacation. so why not take pictures with me on special occasions at least?

its such a little thing, i know, but it really, really gets to me sometimes.

i want something you know, to look back on later. the way i see it is, the first couple years when you're in a relationship is when its fun and thrilling right? so why can't i at least have some tangible memento of it?



anyway......just had to get that out of my system.

Happy Lunar New Year !

Happy Lunar New Year! :)

What do you normally do to celebrate?

When I was a kid my family would travel back to my dad's hometown and meet up with relatives there at the traditional family dinner. Sadly I won't be able to join them this year. I'll be meeting up with some friends for dinner to celebrate though.

Oh, and if any of you have a New Year's FOTD/FOTN, do share :) I've been seeing a lot of great Valentine's Day FOTDs, but would love to see some Lunar New Year ones.

tagged

almost got hit by an SUV monday night. i was sitting on the passenger side minding my own business. we're making a perfectly legal left turn at an intersection just as oncoming traffic is supposed to be stopping but a white SUV kept on going. It came pretty darn close, if it hadn't stopped in time it would've plowed into the side of our car. *Sigh* too many people on the roads that have no clue how to drive.

But anyway I got tagged by Elizabeth and Fei to show "What's in my purse?" so here it is :)

I switch between several bags/purse through the week depending on what I need to carry, but i'll focus on what i usually carry in these two.

For weekends, my small purse:



Doesn't contain much - I don't even use a wallet with this little bag - i stick my cards and bills into the side pocket and use mini sizes of whatever I want to carry with me lol. I know i need a bigger purse but I just can't find any ones I like...I always end up liking the small ones better. I think part of the problem is being petite - large purses tend to look oversized on me.

The contents:



Top row:
Clean & Clear blotting sheets, Purell hand sanitizer, eye drops for contacts, more eye drops, silver travel mirror (only 100 yen! :D)

Middle row:
Tissue, L'occitane hand cream, extra Sephora Beauty Insider tag, movie stub and a grocery receipt, ELF eye palette containing a mix of shadows from NYX and MAC.

Bottom row:
Korean Air pen, Dentyne Frostbites gum (usually I carry Excel mints but forgot to buy more), NYC Fragile Pink lipstick, Blistex lipbalm, Sony Ericsson phone.


When I go to work I use any old messenger bags so I can stick a bottle of water in and my lunch:



I can stick so much more in here as well:



Top row:
Dior shades, C&C sheets, Purell berry scented sanitizer :), Visine, another ELF palette.

Middle row:
Nintendo DS, the same pen, tissue, Dentyne gum and Blistex lipbalm; MAC Mattene lipstick, Guerlain lipgloss, Sony Ericsson phone.

Bottom row:
Ovaltine biscuits to snack on, Bliss hand cream, folding hairbrush/comb, hair elastic, Japanese brand hand warmer pack(stays hot for ~24 hrs!), The Body Shop Satsuma shimmer lipbalm.

And also my wallet and keys - the keystrap with my home keys, and the metal one for my work key and access card so they clip to my belt loop.



Not too exciting unfortunately...I don't carry around much makeup except for lipstuff and eyeshadow to touch up, because I don't like putting on makeup in the middle of the day. I have this thing for using makeup only after I've washed my face. Also most public washrooms in malls and stuff are gross and too public for me to feel comfortable applying makeup there :S

So....I'm tagging:

Alienman
Girl Meets Makeup
Gezebel
Jewels
Mulzanza
Mae
Petitebelle

thinking

I'm thinking about making a visit to Japan in February...but I don't know if I should, or if I can, or if I want the stress that'll come along with the fun.

Also I've been spending a lot more than usual this year, compared to all previous years so I was going to cut back in the next couple of months :(

I don't know....I should check out some things first to see if I can even take the time off, and if I can even handle the whole visa thing...crap I think I'll need a visa to go there too. Man I should have planned things better this year, and not taken any vacation time after all. Although the main reason I took so much time off was because my family really wanted me to visit. Otherwise in 2007 I would've just taken probably only 1-2 weeks off and saved any remaining vacation days for 2008....instead of asking for an extra week of unpaid leave to get 3 weeks off last September.

Ok I know I shouldn't feel stressed about it but its just that I've always wanted to visit Japan with the bf, and I don't think I'll get another chance to go on the trip together for a few more years. But now I'm kinda upset because February is so soon, I don't know if its possible for me to get my visas and ticket all done by then. Plus I'd have to take days off work to apply for the visas as well.

On the bright side, just thinking about a trip like this, or the possibility of losing out on this opportunity is helping me kill a lot of makeup lemmings... I'd stay off MAC for a year if I did actually get to go on this trip. The chance to shop in Japan for clothing is way more appealing than buying more makeup. Besides I'd also get to try out Japanese cosmetics anyway...

Tagged!

I got tagged by Alienman!

So I'm tagging Petitebelle and Beautyjunkie :)

Supposed to tag seven, but a lot of the people I would've tagged have already been tagged by others -.-


Rules as quoted from Alienman's blog:

'Each player starts with 7 random facts/habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to then report this on their own blog with their 7 things as well as these rules. They then need to tag 7 others and list their names on their blog. They are also asked to leave a comment for each of the tagged, to let them know that they have been tagged and to read the blog.'


So here's my list:

1. I've always wanted to work in a Starbucks. Don't know why. I think its the smell of coffee.

2. I love rice. i also love soup. but rice + soup = 10000000000 times better. there's just something irresistible about soupy rice.

3. When buying something, i cannot pick the first item on the shelf. Noooooooooo, i absolutely must pick the one from the back of the shelf, because those just seem newer / fresher. And this applies to everything - from groceries to makeup to electronics.

4. As a kid, I used to get into trouble for reading TOO MUCH. I had no self control with books. Yep, I was obsessed.

5. I'm peverse. NOT pervert, perverse :P If someone tells me I can't do something, I immediately feel a stronger urge to do it. Just to prove them wrong.

6. I was into Power Rangers as a kid...and TMNT lol

7. I've watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind a gazillion times. Seriously. I could still watch it again, and repeat it word for word.

more on breaking an addiction

this is a good reason for me to put my money towards an apartment instead of makeup. :P

I so want a nice spot like that to sort and arrange my stuff so that everything is easily accessible. I also would love to have a dresser table next to that just so that putting makeup on would be something relaxing.

The way things right now, its a huge pain because the washroom lighting is bad, and there is no counter to put my stuff on while I am working. Right now I have to walk in and out of the washroom to check that the colours, blending, coverage are right in natural lighting, and then go back in to adjust as necessary. After that I gotta go back out to recheck that I did it right. haha i'm rambling now....but basically its pretty irritating. By the time I'm done, I'm already late for whereever i'm going :S

breaking an addiction...

Freakishly tired right now, probably because I slept around 12am but had to wake up at 6am to get ready for work.

Anyway I've been thinking about stopping this whole makeup hobby. Its just taking up a lot of money and time. I can waste hours reading makeup related sites, which only lead me to want more and more makeup which I don't need. The thing though is that now its more than just a hobby, its become somewhat of a stress relief, a break from real life. Makeup actually helps me relax because it gives me something else to think about other than whatever's bothering me at the moment.

I really need to start focusing my energy on the things I always wanted, and still want. Just that they've been pushed to the back burner for the past year or so.

So this post is sorta a way to motivate myself to get back on track with some of my long term goals, which are:

1. To own a comfortable, modern, spacious yet manageable apartment.

2. To be able to drive whereever I want and not be limited by my inexperience in driving.

3. To find something I really enjoy doing (like a possible alternative to my current job field)


And since all these goals involve money in some way, one of the things I would have to do is get back into the habit of saving money, which I haven't been doing for like 6 months now....or more. I used to be a huge saver, I could be quite stingy with myself a lot. But now its like....I see some makeup I like, and bam! i go and buy it the very next weekend. And if I don't get it, I obsess over it until I get it. Man, I gotta get out of this habit before it becomes a long term addiction.

a marriage made in heaven

the perfect business joint venture would be having MAC or Sephora team up with Best Buy and have 2 separate, but connected stores.

That way the guy, instead of being bored to tears by the rows and rows of colourful, sickly smelling perfume, can stroll down a couple aisles through a doorway and voila! Rows and rows of DVDs, HD TVs, games for PS3, Wii, Xbox, etc etc...

I tell you, we'd be lost in there for hours. If they added a Starbucks, or, even better, a bubble tea cafe with good Asian food, then make it DAYS.

Of course by then we'd lose our jobs and have no money to spend in the end so.....

to show or not to show

my bf hasn't seen my makeup collection yet, and i kinda want it to stay that way. mostly because its embarrassing for him to know how much stuff there is :S

but last week he said he wanted to see my collection, and he said it again today, that now i could show him my stuff in the new traincase. i don't want to - because i think he'd be completely shocked at how much there is. but i know he wouldn't understand why i'd want to keep it to myself.

i wonder if other people feel the same about their makeup collections.

time flies

i don't really have the time to make a full post. just felt like complaining to someone that i have only a few more days to enjoy being 22 :(

i'm like a girl that doesn't want to grow up. :(